Letter to the editor (Feb. 6, 2014)Why Overturn the Planning Commission? I am concerned about the ongoing controversy over the proposed Overland Park subdivision. I agree that the City Council is suffering from a lack of public confidence, but I disagree that a letter of apology for an alleged claim of misconduct by members of the City Council is the solution. I suggest the City Council members that felt it proper to overturn the Russellville Planning Commission and disregard t...

Investing in colleges, universities critical to improving state’s economic rankingsResponding to my column last week about a report showing that the salaries of faculty members at Arkansas’ 2-year colleges rank below that of the state’s public school teachers, a University of Arkansas professor commented in an e-mail that “being a professor is way easier than being a high school teacher.” Since my 13 years of teaching experience all came at the 4-year college level, I won’t argue that point. But I’m sure that the professor, ...

Improving private optionChange may be the key to keeping the private option insurance plan afloat in the upcoming fiscal legislative session. Last week, I wrote about the effort underway from the architects of private option to save the plan from the possibility of defunding. The bipartisan approach crafted last year allows for expanded health insurance coverage funded with federal dollars from the Affordable Care Act. Funds designed for Medicaid expansion instead ar...

Session to test Beebe’s strength as governorLITTLE ROCK — Two of Mike Beebe’s biggest selling points as Arkansas’ governor over the past seven years have been his mastery of the state’s complex budget system and his ability to survive the recent Republican political tide. The looming fight over the state’s Medicaid expansion will test both of those. What will likely be Beebe’s final legislative session will be dominated by a renewed debate over the private option that was approved last ...

Old watch repairer uses his time wiselyBENTONVILLE — At Overstreet’s Jewelry, Ralph Overstreet’s 97-year-old hands are still repairing watches, just as they have been doing along the town square for more than 65 years. He works six days a week in a profession requiring concentration and dexterity. On a typical day, he makes his bed and then does at least a dozen push-ups and about 20 sit-ups before coming to work. He repairs watches two or three hours in the morning, takes a break ...

Letters to the editor (Feb. 2, 2014)Most commissioners are not bad people For almost 30 years, my real estate practice has placed me in front of planning commissioners, city councils and quorum courts. Russellville the most, but Pottsville, Atkins, Dardanelle and Clarksville at times. Some of these projects I was involved with personally, but most of the time I was representing a buyer or seller, or both. Never have I been approached in any way at any time in any form of a bribe...

Time to dust off the old tackle box for springOf course I know what the weather is like outside, and yes, I know that we are in the midst of one of the harshest winters the Natural State has endured in several years, but not many days from now the sun will start to warm and the winds will start flowing in from the south and Lake Dardanelle will awaken for all of us to enjoy. So now is the perfect time to get out all your gear, including rods and reels, do a little maintenance, put on some...

Kind of interesting: More from the dregs of the netHere we are for another round of “kind of interesting” tidbits collected from around the Internet. Sometimes you learn the weirdest things when you click each and every link presented to you. Some of them make you laugh. Some of them make you cry. Some of them make you want to do both at the same time. -Let’s go Barbie Mattel, the toy-making company famous for Barbie, once filed a lawsuit against MCA Records claiming that their band Aqua’s hit...

News thoughts: Can’t get much lower than this guy-Police in Atlanta have accused a 34-year-old man of using a tow truck to take cars that were abandoned in the city during last week’s winter storm and traffic jam. Police said Louis Mitchell Jr. was arrested Thursday and charged with auto theft, forgery and other offenses. It’s not clear whether he has an attorney. Atlanta Police Sgt. Greg Lyon told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution a police officer saw an unmarked tow truck pulling a car. The...

American people firstThe start of the year is when many companies, organizations, families and people review their plans and their priorities. This process often includes deciding where they should focus their time, energy and effort, and how to judge, at year’s end, whether they have succeeded. Planning is most successful when it is built on the priorities, opportunities and problems that need to be addressed. If the biggest problem one has is health, then health...

The great food stamp bingeSeveral years ago I remember hearing the late Earl Nightingale tell a story about the Punch Island seagulls. It seems a fishing fleet made its center of operations at a small village on the coastline. Each day when the fleet came in with its catch, the fishermen would clean the fish and throw the entrails to the hundreds of seagulls that were waiting for the feast they were sure would come. This went on for weeks, until one day the fleet decid...

For GOP, 2014 a should-win, must-winThe 2014 elections aren’t just a should-win nationally for the Republican Party. They’re almost a must-win. The party, which controls the U.S. House and needs six seats to retake the Senate, has everything moving in its direction this year. The Obamacare rollout has been a mess, so the public will be receptive to the party that preaches less government, even if it often doesn’t practice it. Because this is a nonpresidential election, turnout w...

Liberals, let the states do itIn the beginning, Massachusetts opened the gates to same-sex marriage and universal health coverage. California started to liberalize drug laws by legalizing medical marijuana. The sky didn’t fall on any of these efforts, initially regarded as dangerous social experiments by many conservatives. Now red states such as Kentucky are launching state-run health insurance exchanges. Federal judges in conservative Utah and Oklahoma are calling bans o...

Racing interests slip two throughThe fact that lobbying interests still have a strong influence on legislation passed by the Arkansas General Assembly should surprise no one. In fact, since the enactment of term limits most lobbyists find it even easier to push through legislation that they not only support but have a heavy influence in crafting. One of the powerful lobbying interests in the state represents Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs and Southland Greyhound Park in West Mem...

Christie, Hillary and ObamaThe first time I saw New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on television, a few years ago, my first reaction was astonishment: “A talking Republican!” It would scarcely have been more astonishing if there had been a talking giraffe. For reasons unknown, most Republican leaders seem to pay very little attention to articulation — certainly as compared to leading Democrats, who seem to pay little attention to anything else. Governor Christie’s nearl...

Term limits don’t stop violations of public trustOne of the things we surely have learned from Arkansas politics of the past year is that term limits for public officials don’t guarantee integrity. One can violate the public trust in a short time. Those who brought term limits to Arkansas in 1992 as part of a national movement argued that limiting the terms of public officials would make them less susceptible to the influence of special interest groups and more likely to live up to our expec...

Darr’s stance invited ouster effortLITTLE ROCK — Mark Darr’s stake in the ground turned out to be the nail in his political coffin. Darr’s decision to step down as lieutenant governor over ethics violations tied to his office and campaign spending came three days after the Republican official vowed he wasn’t going anywhere and wasn’t afraid of impeachment threats. Rather than rallying support for him, Darr’s bold stand only seemed to invite an ouster attempt. “Today I put a sta...

Responding to Darr and ShoffnerArkansas has seven constitutional officers: governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and land commissioner. In the past year, two of them, first Treasurer Martha Shoffner and then Lt. Gov. Mark Darr, have been forced to resign due to financial improprieties. At some point, Arkansans should ask ourselves, to paraphrase the old breakup excuse, if it’s not just them, but it’s also us. Let’s be clear:...

More improvement neededLITTLE ROCK — For years now, our state’s leaders in multiple fields of expertise have called for more Arkansans to earn college degrees. In 2011, I urged our state to meet a tangible goal — to double the number of Arkansans graduating with a four-year degree. We have made progress, but we need to accelerate that progress to ensure more Arkansans can take advantages of opportunities before them. The latest figures show that one in five Arkansan...

Another reason to have beer on handAn off-duty Houston firefighter made the best of his resources when trying to put out a truck tire fire: He used beer the rig was hauling. Fire Capt. Craig Moreau and his wife were driving home last Monday night after a trip to Austin when they came upon an 18-wheeler on fire. Moreau and the trucker, whose brake problems started the fire, tried using a small extinguisher. Moreau said he thought the fire was out, but then noticed the blaze had ...